Charlotte inspires high hopes

A case can be made in behalf of many winners in Saturday night’s Bank of America 500.

Monte Dutton

CONCORD – A case can be made in behalf of many winners in Saturday night’s Bank of America 500.

Well, not many winners. There’s actually only room for one. The better term is “contenders.” Charlotte Motor Speedway’s latter Sprint Cup race has many potential winners.

First of all, no less than 18 active drivers have won Cup races at the 1.5-mile track. “Active” includes many drivers who are mostly inactive, such as Bill Elliott, Ken Schrader, Sterling Marlin and Geoff Bodine, but that still leaves, in order of victories, Jimmie Johnson (6), Jeff Gordon (5), Mark Martin (4), Kasey Kahne (4), Jeff Burton (3), Matt Kenseth (2), Bobby Labonte (2), Jamie McMurray (2), Casey Mears, David Reutimann, Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick.

Then there are highly successful drivers still looking for a Charlotte first, among them Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Newman.

Newman is a special case. He’s won nine poles and will start third in this race.

All 12 drivers in the Chase for the Sprint Cup entered NASCAR’s race-offs with high hopes, but Greg Biffle led the point standings for slightly more than half the regular season. His Chase performance to date – ninth place, 49 points behind Keselowski – has been both bitterly disappointing and unexpected.

“We’ve been looking at that and wondering what we missed,” he said. “We’ve had zero mechanical issues. We felt like we were prepared.”